Bush’s Justice

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

Allegations that the Bush administration has irredeemably politicized the Justice Department are going to be a lot harder to credit following yesterday’s announcement from Washington that one of the most powerful Republicans in the Senate, Theodore Stevens of Alaska, had been indicted on seven counts of filing false financial disclosure forms. Prosecutors said he concealed more than $250,000 in goods and services he received from an Alaska-based oil services company.

Mr. Stevens, who at the time chaired the Senate appropriations committee and to this day is a member, “used his position and office on behalf of” the oil-services company during the period in question, according to a Justice Department press release.

Mr. Stevens is entitled to a presumption of innocence. But that such charges were even brought against a powerful Republican during a Republican administration — and at a time when the GOP is fighting for every seat it can get in the Senate — is a matter of note. For all the complaining on the left about the scandal involving United States attorneys and Attorney General Gonzales, it turns out that under the leadership of a new attorney general, Judge Mukasey, the blindfold will be on at Justice, at least where it concerns partisan politics. As it should be, for a criminal politician is a criminal politician, whether a Republican or Democrat.


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